I caught the flu, so I've had lots of time to sleep/rest/read. What I hate most about being sick is how boring it is! And how I lack the motivation to do anything about that! (I'm actually a little relieved it's the flu, because initially I thought it was food poisoning, and I was sad that my Chinese-germ immunization to food illness was over. But yay, it's just the flu!)
Another weird consequence of reverse culture shock I didn't anticipate: being in a crowd of people where everyone speaks a language I recognize freaks me out. In China, because I lived in a city where most people spoke the local dialect instead of Mandarin, I still didn't understand most of what was going on around me. (This is not true of all volunteers; many of them are much, much smarter than I am.) I got very used to tuning out what I could not understand. So even though I was surrounded at close range by literally millions of people, I existed in this little mind bubble where I didn't really have to pay attention to what was going on around me.
But my first week back in America, when I went to my family reunion, I felt like I had been placed in a big amplifier-- I understood EVERYTHING! And I couldn't get my brain to shut off these random snatches of conversation I was hearing from all directions. It was very confusing, and overwhelming. For my first few weeks, I have had to retreat away from this kind of situation, because it is just too much for my senses to take.
Remember the part in X-Men where Jean Grey puts on Dr. X's headset and hears everything like he does and it's too much for her? Yeah, it was like that. It's slowly getting better, but I dread going places where there are more than a handful of people I can hear at any one time. It has made me much more sympathetic to people with autism, because I imagine this is a little taste of what their life is like everyday. And it's really difficult.
I know a few of my readers speak multiple languages, and I am curious if any of you ever experienced the phenomenon of understanding way too much. No one tells you these things before you come home.
I'm really glad that you're posting about your transition back home. I never would have properly understood just how difficult it can really be to try to adjust to life back here. Feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteThis reader can barely speak her own language. :)
ReplyDeleteI can see how this issue would be bothersome though....and how it could relate to someone with autism too.
I do hope you feel better soon. The flu? at this time of year? seems wacky...but then again, you are going through a wacky transition.
take care, Suz
You know what I bet you would be amazing at? Teaching children with auditory processing disorders. So often they are overwhelmed by their surroundings, too much noise, I think you just perfectly described what they go through every day...only for you, it will pass:)
ReplyDeleteI'm battling some chest congestion right now myself, with a bit of a headache. Hoping it's not the flu, seems to be too early for that.
ReplyDeleteI love how you describe it... it makes it so understandable. It is the same for a lot of people who are hard of hearing and how they have to adjust to sounds with a hearing aid. It didn't work out for me (being deaf at one ear), the sounds were too much for me and I choose to go back to my peaceful world of one ear working...lol
ReplyDeleteI remember feeling the opposite when I came home from my stint in Germany but perhaps I was just sooo homesick that it felt good?
ReplyDeleteHowever I totally understand what you mean, the tuning out bit. And yeah, the echoes are pretty loud aren't they?
:-o
Feel better, friend... being sick is the PITS.
ReplyDelete